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Labor leader’s home makes U.S. history
Kate Mullany continues to make history. In 1864, at the age of 19, Mullany, an Irish immigrant, organized and led the all-female Collar Laundry Union, recognized as the first women’s labor union in the United States. She went on to become the first woman to hold office in a national union.
This past December, Mullany’s memory was honored when President Bush signed into law a bill designating her former home in Troy, N.Y., a national historic site. The president’s signature capped an effort spearheaded by members of Congress, and AFT vice president and New York AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Paul Cole, to win this designation for the house.
In 1998, the Mullany house was designated a historic landmark during a dedication ceremony marked by a visit from then first lady Hillary Clinton. After its dedication as a historic landmark, efforts began to elevate the status of the Mullany house to that of a national historic site. Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Michael McNulty (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation that would give the house such status. The bill was passed unanimously last fall by the U.S. Senate and House.
“Credit goes to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Congressman Mike McNulty, and their staffs, for their perseverance and political skill in moving the legislation with bipartisan support,” says Cole, who also serves as executive director of the American Labor Studies Center (ALSC), which is headquartered at the Mullany house.
The ALSC bought the Kate Mullany House in spring 2003. The purchase was made possible by a grant from the office of New York state Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno. In addition to the restoration now under way at the Mullany house, the ALSC has a commitment from state Sen. Bruno to secure funding for the purchase and development of a strategically located property adjacent to the Mullany house. The plans for this property call for creation of the Kate Mullany Park, which will be dedicated to the pioneering women of the American labor movement.
As a national historic site, the Kate Mullany House and the labor center will receive much-needed technical and financial assistance from the National Park Service.
For more information about the Kate Mullany House, visit www.labor-studies.org.
Surfin’ the Web, Johnny? Somebody’s watching you!
Students can use the Internet in a variety of important and valuable ways. It’s a resource for writing research papers, a source for information on scholarships and colleges, and a fun way to communicate with friends and family. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, there also are a lot of sites on the Internet that are inappropriate for children. Parents are concerned about children having access to these sites.Concern about inappropriate content and child predators who use the Internet to find children has led to more and more American parents looking over their children’s shoulders as they surf the Web.
More than 95 percent of the parents who responded to a survey by the Conference Board said they monitor their children’s online activities.
But what about filters, passwords or blocking software? “Parents are more likely to personally monitor their children than rely on technology to safeguard them,” says Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center.
Many parents have imposed time restrictions on their children’s use of the Internet. One of the most likely reasons for this limited viewing is a desire for their children to engage in some physical activity rather than sit in front of a computer screen for long periods of time.
“It is not surprising that most parents monitor their children’s use of the Web to some degree,” says David Stark, a privacy officer with the research firm TNS. “Only one-quarter of adult Internet users say they trust the Internet, and many are concerned about the safety of their own personal information when doing various activities online.”
Free lesson plans—It’s on the money
Coins can be a great teaching tool, and the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program has lesson plans and other resources to reinforce the educational value of the coins.
The 50 State Quarters Program lesson plans for 2005, which the mint is making available online, are the next phase in the series of lesson plans that has been used by thousands of teachers nationwide since the popular program was introduced in 1999. “When coins are used to teach not only addition and subtraction, but also art, history, geography and financial literacy, they become keys to a broader world,” says U.S. Mint director Henrietta Holsman Fore.
The U.S. Mint’s H.I.P. Pocket Change Web site originally featured lesson plans designed for grades K-6. The plans have been expanded to include grades 7-12. The site offers many other educational resources, such as Teacher Features (classroom activities designed to support games and other areas on the site) and the Time Machine (animated, interactive trips to important events in American history).
Created and reviewed by teachers to meet national standards, the lesson plans draw upon the reverse designs of the 50 State Quarters coins to inspire students to learn about the culture, geography and unique heritage of each state. Each set of lesson plans blends clear instructions with student-friendly reproducible worksheets, background information and answer keys to help make instruction easier for educators.
The current lesson plans feature the California, Kansas, Minnesota, Oregon and West Virginia commemorative quarter-dollar coins to be released this year. For these free educational resources, lesson plans from previous years or more information, visit www.usmint.gov/kids.
